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## đź“ś **Steelborn Legacy: Codex & Glossary**
### 🌌 **World & Geography**
**Aetheria**
A boundless, ancient world where continents drift across astral seas, each larger than a galaxy. Aetheria is home to countless species, traditions, and power systems—some long forgotten, others still rising. The world is shaped not by maps, but by legacies.
**The Solaran Imperium**
One of the most powerful empires on Aetheria. Vast, culturally diverse, and ruled by a powerful royal family. It governs through an intricate web of noble houses, orders, and spiritual doctrines. Despite its strength, it is not the only great force in the world.
**Stormgrave**
The ancestral stronghold of House Vaelstrom, carved into the heights of a storm-wracked mountain. Its inner sanctums hold relics from forgotten ages, including the **Vault of Knighthood**.
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### 🛡️ **Orders & Houses**
**House Vaelstrom**
A ducal house famed for its strict adherence to the Knight's Path. Known for producing pure-blooded warriors, the house is feared and respected across the Imperium. Its patriarch, **Arcturus Vaelstrom**, is known as the Iron Sovereign.
**The Royal House of Solaris**
The ruling family of the Solaran Imperium. Said to have ancient ties to sunfire, starbound cultivation, and celestial rites. Other noble houses serve beneath it.
**Knight Orders**
While most nobles incorporate magic, runes, or spirits into their training, a few still uphold the ancient Knight Orders—cultivating through discipline, aura, and martial will alone.
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### ⚔️ **Knight Cultivation System**
**Knight's Path**
A cultivation method that relies on refining a **Knight Core**, condensing will and aura into martial mastery. It forgoes reliance on external magic, contracts, or spiritual artifacts. It is the hardest path to walk—but one of the most revered.
**Knight Core**
The foundation of a knight's strength. A single condensed core of will and aura, formed through harsh physical, mental, and spiritual tempering. While many have one, only a few refine it to **Dominion** level or higher.
#### Known Core Types:
| Core Type | Description | Rarity |
| -------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------- | --------- |
| Standard Core | Common base-level core | Common |
| Purified Core | Denser and more efficient aura control | Uncommon |
| Dominion Core | Reaches full control of the body, grants external suppression | Rare
| Twin Core | Extremely rare and unstable dual-core system | Legendary |
| Collapsed Core | Failed or broken core, usually due to overextension | Dangerous |
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### 🔥 **Aura & Combat**
**Aura**
A manifestation of inner will. In knight cultivation, aura determines presence, precision, and pressure in combat. It can be sharpened, masked, or extended.
**Knight Will**
The spiritual force behind every knight. Not just strength—but the unshakable focus to impose one's presence on the battlefield. Strong Knight Will can paralyze beasts, resist illusions, and even crack weaker cores.
**Steelborn Beasts**
Artificial creatures bred or forged by noble houses for war trials. The one Arthur faced was a low-tier model, infused with low-grade battle runes and trained to react to aura. Higher-tier Steelborn are autonomous war machines used in real combat.
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### 🏛️ **Relics & Locations**
**Vault of Knighthood**
A sealed chamber within Stormgrave, said to contain the memories, weapons, and broken oaths of the Vaelstrom bloodline. Only those who have passed the Trial may enter. Its statues test not strength—but identity.
**The Codex of Sovereignty**
A bound manuscript passed from one heir to the next. It records the ideals, failures, and forbidden techniques of House Vaelstrom. Reading it too early risks madness. Arthur receives its first pages in Chapter 2.
**The Trial Ring**
An arena forged by House Vaelstrom generations ago. Made from broken enemy swords, its floor carries ancestral resonance. To bleed within it is to inherit burden; to conquer within it is to echo legacy.
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